Prevalence, treatment patterns, and prognosis of low estrogen receptor-positive (1% to 10%) breast cancer: a single institution’s experience in Korea

Purpose To determine prevalence, clinicopathological characteristics, initial treatments, and outcomes associated with low estrogen receptor (ER)-expressing invasive breast cancer. Methods This retrospective, non-interventional database study included patients undergoing surgery with curative intent for invasive ductal or lobular breast cancer. Patients were treated between January 2003–December 2012. Demographics, clinicopathological characteristics, initial treatments, and outcomes were abstracted from patient records. Patients were categorized using immunohistochemistry to determine ER, progesterone receptor, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) levels. ER-positive patients were subclassified as ER-low (1% to 10%) and ER-high (> 10%) according to the Allred Proportion Score. Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated by the Kaplan–Meier method and compared among groups by log-rank test. Results 5930 patients were included (median follow-up, 80.9 months). Of all patients included, 117 (2.0%) had ER-low tumors: 63 (53.8%) of whom had HER2− tumors and 54 (46.2%) HER2+ tumors. Five-year DFS and OS were highest in the ER-high/HER2− cohort (94.0% and 98.6%, respectively) and lowest in the triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC; 81.3% and 90.1%) and ER-low/HER2− (85.7% and 92.1%) cohorts. Menopausal status, elevated Ki-67, higher nuclear grade, higher tumor stage, presence of lymphovascular invasion, greater regional lymph node involvement, and larger tumor size were all potential prognostic factors for shorter DFS and OS. Conclusion Patients with ER-low/HER2− breast cancer had similar clinicopathological characteristics, treatments, and outcomes as patients with TNBC irrespective of disease setting. Further research is needed to understand predictive and prognostic factors associated with ER-low/HER2− disease.